A Time For Everything

A Time For Everything

The short excerpt is part of the forward by two-time NBA Coach of the Year, Hubie Brown, in Tony Ingle's book, I Don't Mind Hitting Bottom, I just Hate Dragging.  The Scripture is Ecclesiastes 3:1,4  There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. . . . a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.

Tony's Cherokee High School team was playing Marietta High School (which just so happened to have 6 foot 9 future NBA standout Dale Ellis on its roster).  Tony came up with a trick play called, the "shake and bake."  Now, get this picture in your mind:  it's a big game, the place is packed, and his team is down five points with the ball out of bounds underneath the basket.  Tony called time out to encourage and reinforce instructions.  The players returned to the court and got into their respective positions.

Then, on the slap of the ball, three of Tony's players dropped to the floor- jerking, shaking, and pretending to have seizures.  A Marietta player bent over to assist a player who was convulsing on the floor, and the ball was tossed to the front of the rim where a Cherokee High player scored a layup!  The place went nuts!  The crowd was hysterical!

Champions, hope this made you laugh or at the very least put a smile on your face!  Have a great week!-David Vining

Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit

 Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller and Susan Neder, and the Scripture is Matthew 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Tim Keller says the following:  "For many, it is not your sins or your badness that keep you from God; it's your damnable good works.  It's the things that you think make you good enough.  There are two ways to try and kick God out of your own life and take control and be your own God and your own Lord and Master.  One way is to be absolutely bad.  You say, "I'm going to cheat when I want to, I am going to lie when I want to, and I'm going to commit adultery when I want to.  The other way to completely kick God of your life and totally control Him and be your own Lord and Master is by being good.  By being good you can tell God, "You owe me."  By being good you can tell other people that you owe me.  And by being good you completely zap your life of joy because you look at your goodness and you say that you can do better.  You deserve better.  But if you look at your badness and you see your unfitness, then you can see what Jesus Christ has done for you." (end of Keller excerpt)

We cannot be filled until we are first empty.  Poverty of spirit is basically an attitude toward ourselves as we come face to face with our loving and holy God.  It is a consciousness of our need and inadequacy.  Yet, it is a moving from that recognition not into depression, or an attempt to fix ourselves up, but to cry out to our merciful God for His mercy and forgiveness.  It means to trust not in ourselves or anything we must do or possess to make ourselves acceptable to God.  So, poverty of spirit is the foundation and center from which all the other Beatitudes radiate, for unless we know how poor we are, we'll never reach out for Him.  The whole of life is this:  Total dependence upon the Spirit of God no matter what you do.  How blessed are the poor in spirit.

The recognition of our need is not just bad news.  Acknowledging our need before God, who longs to address that need is the very beginning of life in the Kingdom of God.  Recognizing my inability to make myself good enough for God, to save myself, makes me open to receive the Kingdom of God through the gift of the finished work of Jesus.  This is both the entrance into the Kingdom and the continuous way of life in the Kingdom.  Jesus exemplified this way of dependence on His Father.  "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but only what He sees the Father doing."  May it be our Be-Attitude as well, and open to us the riches of the Kingdom of God.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

Absolute Truth

Absolute Truth

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by RC Sproul, and the Scripture is John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

The Koran (Islam's holy book) says, "Jesus . . . was only a messenger of Allah . . .Far is it removed from His (Allah's) transcendent majesty that He should have a son."  In other words, Christianity says Jesus is the Son of God, but Islam says Jesus is not the Son of God.  Are Christianity and Islam the same about Jesus?  Can both religions be true?  Two contradictory statements can't both be true at the same time in the same way.  Without assuming that principle (called the law of non-contradiction), no meaningful statement about reality is possible.

The point is that truth is not relative.  Jesus claims that there is one way to get to heaven, so all roads do not lead to the same path.  Truth is truth.  We all know that 2 + 2 = 4.  Relativism is more than logically impossible; it's morally unthinkable.

If nothing is true, nothing is immoral.  Not torturing infants.  Not the Holocaust.  Not slavery. Not rape.  Not drive-by gang murders.  Not nuclear destruction.  Not cannibalism.  Not oppressing women.  Not racial bigotry.  Not any evil act.

And that's both relativism's downfall and its attraction.  People often reject the idea of absolute truth to escape the idea of absolute morality.  They choose relativism to justify their own behavior.  But deep down in their consciences, all people know (even those who don't like to admit it during a discussion on truth) that some acts are absolutely wrong.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

P.S.  When someone tells you that no one can know the truth, ask them how they know that  is true.

 

The Real Jesus

The Real Jesus

 Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Luke 9:23-24 Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.

If you see the real Jesus, then you are attracted to Him.  If you are attracted to Jesus, then that shows that you are at least looking.  When I see someone who is attracted to Christ, but he says, "I don't want this.  This will ruin my life, and my family will laugh at me.  This will probably change everything, and I don't want this."  I'm much happier about your state of condition than the people who have never struggled or wrestled. 

Until you see not only the attractiveness of Jesus but also the utter demands that intimidate and scare you to death, you haven't really come to grips with the real Jesus.  People that say, "Of course I have always believed, but I don't believe that you need to get fanatical about religion."  These type of people haven't seen the real Jesus.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

P.S.  The gospel message is that you are more sinful, evil and weak than you ever dared believe, but you are more valued, accepted and loved than you ever dared hope.